Kenya confirms first Ebola case after Kenyan man travels from Congo through Uganda
Kenya confirmed its first Ebola case after a Kenyan citizen who had lived in Congo for seven years died in Nairobi, according to Reuters. Health officials are tracing 57 contacts, with ten already quarantined, and questions are being asked about how the man passed airport screening. Kenya's border controls are now under scrutiny in an outbreak that has caused more than 4,000 deaths in Congo, per the Congolese Ministry of Health cited by ABC News.
Bottom line — Kenya's health minister Aden Duale says contact tracing is ongoing, with 57 contacts identified and ten quarantined so far.
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The patient was in Congo for about a month while ill, travelling by road to Buta-area towns, a flight to Beni, a drive to Uganda, and then a flight to Nairobi, according to BBC and AP accounts.
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Kenya's health director-general Patrick Amoth told ABC News the patient may have masked his symptoms with medication, which could have allowed him to pass airport screening.
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Africa CDC chief Jean Kaseya told the BBC that temperature checks at border points are unreliable and that Ebola cannot yet be tested for at borders, a point Kenyan doctors' union representative Dennis Miskellah echoed.
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Uganda's government spokesperson Alan Kasujja told Reuters to 'leave Uganda out of this conversation', while Uganda's health ministry said its screening teams recorded a normal temperature at Entebbe airport.
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Reuters reports the Bundibugyo strain involved has no approved vaccine or treatment, with trials under way, according to the BBC.
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A US-built 50-bed Ebola quarantine camp on an air force base in central Kenya has housed only seven people, according to Reuters; a separate US plan for a treatment facility at Nanyuki was halted by Kenyan courts, per the BBC.
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The World Health Organization recommended against travel restrictions on affected countries, according to a statement by Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on X, cited by Reuters.
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Médecins Sans Frontières says it trained 355 professionals, including 84 Kenyan health workers, at an Ebola simulation centre it opened in Kajiado county in June, per its own statement.